Super PAC forms for Gingrich

A longtime executive and fundraiser for Newt Gingrich’s American Solutions for Winning the Future organization is forming a super PAC to back the former House speaker’s presidential candidacy.

Calling itself Winning Our Future, the new Atlanta-based super PAC materializes at a time when Gingrich has firmly established himself as the GOP race frontrunner, but lacks the campaign cash and organization of rivals such as Mitt Romney and Rick Perry.

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The new super PAC “will work aggressively to counter the well-financed efforts of the opposition,” it said in a statement.

“We are motivated by the fact that Americans must make the right choice next November at the ballot box or this great nation will not be recognizable,” Winning the Future President Becky Burkett said in a statement. “What is so exciting is that more and more Americans are beginning to realize that Newt Gingrich is the right choice and Barack Obama is the wrong choice. And so, we are proud to be part of an effort to enhance the momentum he has created.”

Burkett was a prolific fundraiser for American Solutions For Winning the Future, which raised $54 million between its formation in October 2006 and its collapse shortly after Gingrich declared his presidential campaign.

Winning the Future brings Gingrich in line with most other major Republican candidates, who enjoy the support of super PACs. Romney, Perry, Jon Huntsman, and previously, Herman Cain, have to date each received six- or seven-figures worth of independent financial backing from super PACs supporting their candidacies, mostly in the form of television and radio advertisements and phone banking.

Super PACs, also known as independent expenditure-only committees, may raise and spend unlimited money to support or oppose political candidates so long as they do not directly coordinate with candidate campaigns. They popped onto the political scene in mid-2010 following rulings in the SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission and Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission federal court cases.

The Federal Election Commission had not released Winning Our Future’s formal filing documents as of early Tuesday afternoon.